Monday, April 16, 2012

25!

Today is my 25th birthday! I'm really excited about turning another year older - and wiser! - and have spent some time thinking about all of the great things I've been able to do in my first 25 years of life. Horseback riding lessons, long weekend trips to Paris and Rome with my momma, a Thanksgiving in Scotland with my family, studying at Wellesley, finding amazingly smart and inspiring friends at Wellesley, going to grad school at Yale, interning at the UN, and meeting B all top a seemingly endless list of amazing things I've been able to do in my life so far.

But in addition to looking back, I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do with my life and, more specifically, what I want the next five years of my life to look like. So just for fun, I've come up with a list of thirty things I want to do before I turn 30. Some of them are more goals than things to do, and I might be aiming a little high with the number of places I'd like to travel, but a girl can dream, right?

1. Marry the love of my life
2. Pay off my student loans
3. Go on a yoga retreat
4. Spend a week or two in Italy
5. Make homemade popsicles and ice cream in the summer
6. Relearn German, Russian, or Spanish - or learn a new language like Italian, Arabic, or French
7. Go to Greece
8. Get a puppy
9. Take riding lessons again
10. Publish a book
11. Really take advantage of living in Atlanta
12. Decorate our apartment with big girl furniture, and get a gorgeous farm house table
13. Plant some kitchen herbs
14. Take a photography class
15. Get a bike, preferably a vintage looking one with a huge basket, and ride it all the time
16. Open up a retirement account
17. Go to India, Turkey, or Croatia
18. Read more of the books on my reading list - and just read more
19. Practice yoga daily
20. Eat less and eat cleaner. Go to more farmer's markets and order food from a CSA program
21. Go on a safari in Africa
22. Pay a Wellesley student's summer stipend so they can do an internship related to women's rights
23. Stop trying to control everything and worry less
24. Spend less time on the internet and at my computer
25. Spend more time creating
26. Go on a girl's trip with my momma
27. Spend Christmas out of the country
28. Go to Macchu Picchu or Patagonia
29. Have more fresh flowers in my apartment
30. Learn to make palak paneer and pad thai

"I myself have never been able to figure out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a door mat or a prostitute." - Rebecca West